EXPEDITION INTO 



pitality, we also became the proprietors of a comfortable 

 travelling- wag-g-on^ seventeen feet in leng'th^ and a span or 

 team of twelve toug-b little Faderland oxen. The former 

 owner, an honest Yorkshireman, named Matthews, whom 



1 especially recommend to all persons requiring- a similar 

 conveyance, was with difficulty induced to part with it, and 

 after twelve months' experience of its comforts, we had no 

 hesitation in pronouncing- it to be a cheap and valuable pur- 

 chase. 



With this vehicle, driven by a drunken Hottentot, we took 

 the road to Graham's Town under convoy of Joe Butler, a 

 merry Irishman, of whom we had hired a second wag-g-on for 

 the conveyance of our wares. The activity and skill dis- 

 played by Joe in the g-uidance of his strag-g-ling* team of 

 oxen, and the unerring- dexterity with which he wielded his 

 long- and formidable whip, did not fail to excite in us the 

 same astonishment that has been expressed by every traveller 

 in South Africa. Eichard, my new valet, voluntarily assumed 

 the office of cook, conceiving- himself also, in virtue of the 

 experience he had acquired during- a trip to Litakoo, a few 

 years before, with a party of Indian g-entlemen, specially 

 charg-ed with our safety. On this occasion, however, he 

 had strang-ely forg-otten to lay in supplies for the road, and 

 we fared badly in consequence. 



I do not profess to write a journal, and may therefore 

 spare my reader the annoyance of perusing- on every pag-e 

 those uninteresting- details connected with the interior econ- 

 omy of a cajihy which are doubtless too often the cause of 

 a volume being- thrown aside in disg-ust. Once for all let me 

 state that we usually rose with the daAvn, breakfasted at 

 nine or ten, or as soon as water could be obtained, and 

 after halting- an hour for that meal, continued our pilg-rimag-e 

 until a favourable spot presented itself for the nocturnal 

 bivouac. Whilst the cattle were turned out to c'raze for a 



